'Living Laboratories' Let Pupils Develop at Their Own Pace

On the surface, the Lake George (N.Y.) Elementary School and the
Walter F. White Elementary School in the Brownsville section of
Brooklyn are a study in contrasts.

One is set in a striking one-level building on a wooded road in a
quiet resort town. Its pupils are predominantly white and middle class.
The other is housed in a three-level structure bordered by factories
and housing projects on a stark urban street. Most of its pupils are
low-income blacks and Hispanics.

Inside, however, the schools share a common philosophy that
officials say has reaped promising results.

Their operative principle is that children's development does not
always match their grade level--and that they learn best when allowed
to develop at their own pace.

While neither school has spurned standard grades completely, both
cluster children by age groups and allow movement between levels for
pupils ready to advance or needing more time in a given subject.

And both try to individualize learning, so that a child entering a
new age group can proceed from where he or she left off in the last
level.

The Lake George school has been experimenting with the "continuous
progress" model since its inception 20 years ago; the Walter F. White
school, also known as Public School 41, is in its third year of a pilot
program using flexible groupings in grades K-3.

Because there are few prototypes, each school has forged its own
approach and continues to refine it.

"We created from our own people what we thought was best for kids,"
said Robert J. Ross, principal of the Lake George school. Gary Wexler,
assistant principal of P.S. 41, said, "We're like a living
laboratory."

The Lake George Elementary School, a K-6 school with 600 students,
was designed for multi-age grouping, with expansive rooms containing
several teaching stations sur4rounding a common area. Initially, it ran
a continuous-progress program only for K-4 pupils. But Mr. Ross, who
had headed two similar schools in New Hampshire, decided in
consultation with faculty members to extend the model through 6th
grade.

At first, they tried dividing the school into two teams, separating
pupils who needed more structure from more independent learners.

But that approach was scrapped a few years later, Mr. Ross said, as
it became apparent that the structured team "was becoming more and more
populated with boys" and problem pupils who then had little opportunity
to emulate more independent peers.

The school still uses a rating system to assess learning styles, but
groups pupils heterogeneously.

First to 6th graders are divided into three "clusters" occupying
separate rooms identified by colors. Within the clusters, 1st- and
2nd-, 3rd- and 4th-, and 5th- and 6th-level students occupy teaching
stations led by teams of two or three teachers.

Team leaders, school specialists, and the principal form a cabinet
that shares in school governance.

The teachers for different age levels maintain contact on pupils'
progress and plan instruction around common themes or joint
projects.

Because the school allows movement among the age levels for children
ready to accelerate or needing more time on a concept, about 6 percent
of its pupils join older or younger groupings for some subjects, Mr.
Ross said. A small number may remain in a grouping for more than two
years, but others have moved into junior-high work by 6th grade.

The local junior high school has worked with the elementary school
to accommodate pupils of varying ability levels, Mr. Ross said. Faculty
members sometimes keep a child in an accelerated program rather than
send him to junior high early, he noted, or promote a child of
junior-high age they feel would not benefit from retention in
elementary school.

To foster a climate in which "youngsters are not threatened by
comparison," Mr. Ross said, the school has no "pecking order that
awards kids responsibility because of age; there is no graduation and
no special privileges by age."

The Lake George program runs counter to ungraded primary models
promoted by some national experts in that its kindergarten is separate.
It also advises some parents, on the basis of readiness assessments
conducted in consultation with parents, teachers, and counselors, to
keep children in half-day nursery schools for an extra year before
enrolling them in the full-day kindergarten.

The school tried a combined K-1 class several years ago, Mr. Ross
said, but the wide range of developmental levels "didn't lend itself to
the teaming process." Teachers note, however, that the program is
"developmentally appropriate" and allows kindergartners to work with
older pupils.

Sandra Feldman, president of the United Federation of Teachers in
New York City, began promoting "ungraded primary units" after
discussions with teachers convinced her many pupils were entering or
moving through the early grades unprepared. At the same time, she said,
a u.f.t. study showed pupils who had been retained were twice as likely
to drop out.

Ungraded units, Ms. Feldman reasoned, could help break the pattern
by letting pupils "get through their first two or three years of school
at their own pace."

P.S. 41, one of two schools picked by the New York City Board of
Education to test the concept, launched Project Success and Achievement
in Learning in the fall of 1987. The city's first public-school
ungraded primary unit, it serves 561 of the school's 925 K-5
pupils.

Project sail includes "cores" of classrooms serving children ages 5
and 6, 6 and 7, 7 and 8, and 8 and 9. Core teachers share lunch and
preparation periods each day.

PS 41 teachers also coordinate instruction around common themes and
share information, so that "a child who needs more help or enrichment
in a subject can be moved around within the core," said Principal
Herbert Ross, who is not related to Mr. Ross of Lake George.

The school also has committees to help make decisions on pupils'
movement between age groups within sail and from sail to 4th grade.

About 10 to 15 percent of the pupils join other age groups for
instruction at some point, Mr. Ross said. Five 8- and 9-year-old pupils
have accelerated enough to be placed in 4th grade.

While the school has cut down on "tracking," it still has an
enrichment program for top students and some ability grouping in the
cores.

"We have a lot of teachers we are moving" toward more heterogeneous
classes, "but we have to move slowly," Mr. Ross said. "It's a
compromise."

P.S. 41 tried a system where pupils switched teachers for some
subjects before opting for a "home base" with a stable teaching
team.

At first, teachers hesitated to shift pupils among age levels. "It's
human nature to be comfortable with what you have," Mr. Ross said. ''We
pushed them to use the concept."

The school is trying, the principal added, to work out a more
formalized way to monitor pupil movement. A management team of three
administrators, three teachers, an aide, and a u.f.t. representative
also meets regularly to assess the project.

Shared decisionmaking at both schools, faculty say, has allowed
principals and teachers to collaboratively design and fine-tune the
programs.

"They never could have done it in a top-down mode," Ms. Feldman said
of P.S. 41's Project sail.

The collegial climate at Lake George has fostered an openness to
change, said Bonnie Nadig, a parent. "They're not afraid to try it and
then say, 'Let's try something else."'

Both schools have fused other progressive teaching techniques with
the multi-age concept, such as literature-based reading, process
writing, thematic planning, team teaching, and cooperative
learning.

In rooms decorated with elaborate art projects tied to curricular
themes, Lake George pupils read independently and aloud, create their
own books, and solve math problems with paper and pencil and on
computers. They move easily from solitary to group activities and
appear comfortable working alone or in pairs.

In Project sail classrooms, pupils brainstorm on how to begin a
writing project and recite "rap" verses, drills, and songs to build
their vocalubaries.

In addition to structured lessons, pupils also spend time in
"learning centers" where they can read, play music, manipulate objects,
or play creative games to reinforce lessons.

The school also highlights pupils' cultural and ethnic heritage and
runs an urban-studies museum.

Both schools try to strike a balance between structured activities
and those that offer choices.

"The learning is open, but the school day is very structured," said
Sherman Parker, the Lake George superintendent. "Kids know where
they're supposed to be."

"There's structure, but not so much that students feel they have to
stay in little boxes," said Diane Brannon, a P.S. 41 teacher.

Both schools shun formal grades and report cards and have their own
pupil profiles and progress reports.

The Lake George school is replacing standardized tests for
kindergarten and 1st grade with a developmental instrument. P.S. 41 has
not been successful in its bid to eliminate standardized tests until
4th grade, but test results, though favorable, have been downplayed by
school officials.

More telling than tests, he said, are sharp increases in parent
involvement and in the school's power to hold students despite a
transient surrounding population.

The multi-age approach wins praise for allowing pupils to progress
easily and stemming frustration among slow learners. "The children are
constantly being challenged," said Cynthia W. Ellinger, a Lake George
parent.

Less adept pupils, said Cynthia Lichtenthal, a P.S. 41 teacher, are
''not forced into a mode of negative self-fulfilling prophecy."

"No one is telling them they can't," said Nancy Corsetti, a teacher
at Lake George. Multi-age groups foster a "family feeling," said her
colleague, Rick Trzaska, and encourage children to aid each other.

Staff members add that multi-age grouping has eased the way for
greater interaction between special-education and regular students.

But one parent warns that the approach is not ideal for all
pupils.

"The system works wonderfully for those who don't have this kind of
problem, but my son needs more structure," said Alice F. Larsen, a Lake
George parent whose son has a visual learning disability.

Despite the efforts to individualize instruction, she added, some
pupils still recognize differences in each others' progress and compare
notes.

The "noise and movement" of ungraded units also takes "getting used
to" for teachers, noted Deborah Pierce, a P.S. 41 teacher-trainer.

Despite such hurdles, officials at both schools maintain their
programs can be replicated successfully.

But such efforts require "tremendous dedication," Mr. Parker noted,
and "a lot of time and investment."

According to Mr. Ross of P.S. 41, Project sail may have to increase
its class sizes if the board does not renew its funding. And the board
continues, he said, to request test scores, pupil counts by grade, and
other data at odds with the project's philosophy.

It boils down, she said, to "a question of what kind of systemic
support will be given."

Vol. 09, Issue 14

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